


As Ready as I'll Ever Be

by DarlingCera



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Spoilers for 2x05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-29
Updated: 2014-03-29
Packaged: 2018-01-17 10:24:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1384006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarlingCera/pseuds/DarlingCera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Price and Zeller cope with the murder of Beverly Katz. Sort of fluffy, sort of angsty.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As Ready as I'll Ever Be

“You coming home with me tonight? We can get take out…?” Jimmy price asked as he hung up his lab coat, relieved to finally be going home for the night.  
“I don’t think I can eat. Not after this.” Zeller shook his head “But yeah, I’d feel better staying at your place tonight. “  


The sliced up body of Beverly Katz had been laid out on too many gurneys and neither of them could take their eyes off of her. Their stomachs had twisted into sailors knots, and as soon as Jack Crawford left the room, Price vomited into the sink.  


Their hands and knees shook as they began to examine her, slice by horrifying slice, examining everything in the greatest detail, regardless of how much it pained them. Beverly deserved at least that much. In their hearts though, the pair had already vowed to take down whomever had done this, to bring them to trial and do everything in their power to ensure that he spent the rest of his life in jail.  


Zeller left his car in the parking lot and Price drove them back to his house, which was significantly nicer than Zeller’s apartment. Price unlocked the door to his empty home and set his keys on the hook by the door. Bryan was at home here, and set off to the immaculate kitchen to make coffee. Jimmy followed him, sitting down at the kitchen table and burying his face in his hands for a moment.  


“I can’t even process it…Does it even feel real to you?” He asked, turning to look at Bryan as he filled a the filter with coffee grinds.  
Price remembered Beverly’s first day. He had been immediately taken with her humor and her wit. The way she moved through the examination room, getting things done, and getting them done right. He couldn’t have asked for a better co-worker.  


She had become a friend after Zeller was hired on. He wasn’t lazy, but he wasn’t the pinnacle of efficiency either. It had taken Price almost no time to fall in lust, and eventually love.  


“Go after him. He’ll never figure it out if you don’t tell him flat out.” Beverly had said to him while Zeller was just out of ear shot. Price had come back with a list of reasons as to why he shouldn’t, Zeller was too young, too this, too that. But his protests were meant with a prompt “Shut up. If you don’t say something I will. I’m not afraid to go back to high school and I don’t mind being your third wheel if it means you two stop pussyfooting around each other.”  
Katz was clearly getting frustrated with the two of them. She left early that night, after giving the same speech to Zeller, to give them some space. To take care of the last of the night’s bodies on their own.  


Price asked Zeller to dinner that night, and Beverly received two messages on her phone as she sat in her pajamas on her sofa, watching a movie with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s. She was satisfied with the two of them to say the least.  


He remembered that first dinner like it was yesterday, even though it was more than a year ago, before the ripper started ripping and everything else went to hell in a hand basket.  


They were all a lot happier back then, and Price smiled a little as he remembered it.  


Zeller sat down across from him with mugs of black coffee in his hands.  


“Remember when we used to all get drunk in here?” he asked “We’d do shots on Friday nights and Bev would end up sleeping on the couch. Then we’d all go out for breakfast hung over the next morning. “ Beverly’s big , extra-dark hangover sunglasses were still in his car where she had accidentally left them.  


“Those were the best nights.” Price agreed.  


They reminisced over their coffee, there were so many stories to tell and Price and Zeller were almost positive that they went through them all,from stories of Beverly putting someone in their place, to small trips to the gun range that they had almost forgotten about.  


Price took the last sip of his second cup of coffee. “It’s easy to forget about the little things you do with someone when you assume they’re going to be around forever.” He said, his eyes heavy with sadness and exhaustion.  


He looked up at the clock, it was nearly two in the morning.  


“C’mon. Let’s go to bed before we start crying again. Bev would be pissed if she saw us sitting here moping like a couple of babies. “ Zeller yawned and got up from the hard kitchen chair, his back was stiff and he was exhausted.  


He put his cup in the sink and Price followed, slowly trudging up the stairs behind Zeller.  


In the bedroom, Bryan stripped to his boxers and socks before crawling into bed without even being invited while Price changed into his pajamas.  
They curled up together in the blankets, their bodies weary but their minds awake. Eventually, they settled into a restless sleep that was cut much too short by the rising sun.  


“Don’t turn on the news. She’ll be all over it. Freddie Lounds was at the sene before the FBI.” Price said as he put pieces of bread into the toaster. Zeller put down the remote and went back to the kitchen, hugging Price from behind. “It’s going to feel so real today... But I can’t just stay home and let this bastard get away with whatever he’s doing. “ Bryan sighed, his head on Jimmy’s shoulder.  


After breakfast, Price picked up his keys from the hook and they left the comfort of his home, back to the cold lines of the office. “Ready?” Zeller asked as he placed his hand on the handle of the refrigerated drawer that held the first slice of Beverly Katz. “As ready as I’ll ever be.” Price sighed. .


End file.
